Purpose
The purpose of this single page is for the reader to gain the basic biblical view of the millennium. To do this, the reader must read and continue reading God’s WORD. Before reading further on this page, the reader must read the following five chapters in their entirety back-to-back from beginning to end. Even if you have read them before, read them again now as if you never read them before, and as always, continue in God’s WORD daily in the same way.
Now read 1 Thessalonians 4 and 2 Peter 3 and Revelation 20-22.
Summary
1. Some have already died in Christ; some are still alive in Christ. This is in this earth age.
2. Christ will come down from heaven to the clouds above, and we will be taken up to meet Him in the air. The dead in Christ will rise first. Then those who are still alive in Christ will be caught up with the risen dead in Christ to meet Him. We will be with Him forever.
3. Satan will be bound in the Abyss for 1000 years.
4. After being caught up with the dead in Christ and the LORD in the air, the saints reign with Christ & judge the nations for 1000 years in the beloved city here on earth (R20:6-9).
5. Satan is released for a short time, deceiving the nations, and surrounding the holy city.
6. Fire comes down from God out of heaven and devours them.
7. The devil is cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are.
8. These heavens & earth will be destroyed by fire, & there will be a new heaven and earth.
Wisdom in the WORD 
Funny, I was just discussing some of these concepts with my wife the other day. Now, here is a question or three:
Don’t God’s people reign with Jesus during this 1000 years? Don’t we have our resurrected bodies during this period? Can the people of the nations believe in Christ during this time? If they believe in him, do they immediately receive resurrected bodies also?
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Great questions. So, we must now also add a sixth chapter and read 1 Corinthians 15.
1. Don’t God’s people reign with Jesus during this 1000 years?
Yes, see #4 above. Remember, YHVH came from Sinai, Teman and Mt. Paran. He rides on the clouds wherever the Spirit desires. And we also will rise to meet Him in the air when He descends from heaven and comes on the clouds. We who love the LORD will also join with Him who rides upon the clouds. And going with Him, we will also be seen coming there with thousands upon thousands of holy ones. So we will reign with Him for 1000 years in the holy city.
2. Don’t we have our resurrected bodies during this period?
Great question. This is a mystery. Yes, the dead will be raised imperishable. We all will be changed in the twinkling of an eye. Clearly, this must be before the millennium as Christ is here during the millennium. And it is clear that at His coming, we along with the raised dead in Christ will first rise to meet Him in the air. We will rise in the precense of the Ancient of Days.
3. Can the people of the nations believe in Christ during this time?
The nations will not be deceived until the devil is loosed again at the end of the 1000 years. Christ will be here so every eye will see. Believing is knowing without seeing. Only those who take part in the first resurrection are free from the power of the second death. That is to say, those who are not priests with Christ during the millennium will not be deceived until the end of the millennium. However, they also are not free from the power of the second death.
4. If they believe in him, do they immediately receive resurrected bodies also?
The people of the nations in the millennium see Christ and His holy ones. However, they do not believe or have part in the first resurrection.
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eyn
Strange question: do only the resurrected saints reign in the millennium? Revelation 20 seems to focus mostly on the dead in Christ.
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eny
True, “they” of verse 4 is interesting mentioned before the souls of the dead in Christ and after the nations suggesting those who were among the living nations
Coupled with 1Th4, we have
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
1 Thessalonians 4:16-17
Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.
Revelation 20:6
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Revelation does not have anything exactly matching 1Th4… but wait…we can read clearly of devastating things happening on earth, thinking all most be over yet at the end of 18 and beginning of 19, we see living saints on earth and then in heaven. This fits 1Th4, and leads into the millennium reign over this earth.
And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth.
Revelation 18:24
And after these things I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Alleluia; Salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God:
Revelation 19:1
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Reading Revelation 19 & 20 along with 1 Thessalonians 4 and understanding the relationship of these events makes it all the more clear exactly why Peter wrote that a day with the LORD is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as a day.
The Great and Mighty Day of the LORD
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SR
Well, what interests me is how will there be people alive in the Kingdom that don’t have resurrected bodies? Or once they trust in the Lord, will they receive them?
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eny
These are referred to in Rev20:3&8 by the word nations. The phrase in verse 9 “the camp of the saints” is on earth indicating God’s people here on earth. Verses 4-6 refer to the resurrection of the dead in Christ which we know according to 1Th4 is when the dead in Christ rise first and we who remain are caught up to meet them with the LORD in the air. We know according to 1Cor15 that we will at that time be changed and that the dead in Christ also will receive their immortal bodies. Rev20:4 shows that the souls of those who were martyred then lived and reigned with Christ for 1000 years. Souls need not mean disembodied souls. These are not disembodied souls for this is after the first resurrection. After the first resurrection all those in Christ will have received their and our immortal bodies.
So having established that the millennium follows the first resurrection it is clear that all the LORD’s people have immortal, resurrected bodies and that all the other peoples on earth are referred to simply at the nations. Clearly, these do not have resurrected immortal bodies.
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end
The main idea for me is distinguishing between the various “days of the Lord”, as Thessalonians and Corinthians seem clear in designating it as the rapture, but others maybe less so.
eny
There is one day of the LORD
Peter acknowledges the timing can be challenging for us to reconcile what seem like different times and events in the day of the LORD, and he acknowledges this in showing that a day and a thousand years are alike to the LORD
end
So everything will be happening simultaneously or at different times, but it won’t matter, as that day, nor GOD, are time-bound, right?
eny
Not so much helter skelter as there is still clear order.
Peter’s insight about a thousand years being like a day makes sense of how the millennium takes place in between…that is to say, right after the catching up, yet right before the marriage supper of the Lamb.
In this way, Revelation goes right from saints dying in Babylon on earth (end of 18) right into all the saints in heaven at the marriage supper of the Lamb (beginning of 19). And at the same time, 1 Thessalonians 4 goes right from the catching up to being with the LORD forever.
Yet Revelation 20 shows the millennium here on this earth after all the saints experience the first resurrection, and in our immortal eternal bodies reign with Christ for 1000 years from the earthly Jerusalem over all the unregenerate nations.
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SR
What I find interesting is that, according to your model, resurrected believers will be reigning over humans in bodies like those we have now. And, in your model, will any of those people escape the destruction of the Old Creation after the 1000 years are up?
eny
This what we read
And this gives further clear evidence of true free will
So that no one is ultimately forced to serve Christ.
When Satan is released for his final foray, those who did not receive Christ will not be protected from satanic deception and will be destroyed because they rejected the Son of Man
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A brother just this morning mentioned the harvesting angels. This prompted a fresh reading of 1 additional chapter, Revelation 14 which now also fits in quite simply and plainly with the concise sequence outlined above in this post.
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